Week #6 – The Chair

The Chair

Observation

The chair belonged to my grandmother. It has a matching one. They were an inheritance from my grandmother. I remember that they were green brocade then orange velvet. I recovered them in an textured ivory fabric that has little pink and blue flowers. The back is tufted in what is called a rolled back. They have wooden arm accents and a loose cushion. They have wooden legs. There is double piping where the fabric touches the wood. The style of chair is French provincial. The wood is nicked from being moved frequently. They are old. I got them in the late 70’s and refinished them in the early 90’s. I sometimes use old English polish to make the wood look newer.

The Chair's Message

I caught the eye of Vivian Willcoxson when I was new and shiny. My green brocade fabric suggests an elegance that she had dreamed of as a young girl living in an old farm house on a dusty dirt road. We had an important place in her living room and only the grownups could sit on us. But because she had frequent visitors our shiny fabric began to show its wear. She loved us though and instead of seeking out new chairs she recovered us in that tangerine velvet that was so popular in the sixties and seventies. She did it herself with the help of Cecil. He did the hard work of pulling our skin off while she measured, cut and sewed us new ones. We can still see the look of satisfaction she had when she looked back at our new look.

But then she got sick with that rotten breast cancer. They couldn’t save her.

The Reading

The Chair Video